District lawyer moved to stop Frazier probe

Thursday

Sep 26, 2013 at 10:45 AM

By CHRIS ANDERSON

The decision to close the Rod Frazier investigation in November after only one day was made on the advice of former school board attorney John Bowen, who concluded information obtained by the district did not constitute child abuse.

Bowen told the Herald-Tribune that he advised former Manatee County school district investigator Debra Horne not to call a state-mandated child abuse hotline and to conclude her investigation into allegations that Frazier had touched female students and sent them inappropriate text messages.

In likely the first case of its kind in the state, Horne was charged on Aug. 15 with a felony count of failure to report child abuse.

Former interim superintendent Bob Gagnon and former Manatee High assistant principals Matthew Kane and Gregg Faller also have been charged with failure to report child abuse and lying to police.

Frazier, a former parent liaison and assistant football coach at Manatee High, has been charged with seven counts of misdemeanor battery.

All have pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Bowen, who at the time of his retirement on June 30 was the highest paid employee in the school district, also questions why others — including himself — were not charged by the state with failure to report child abuse, a law significantly strengthened in Florida by the recent Penn State scandal.

“If you are going to apply the same rationale they applied to Miss Horne then everyone who knew about this before and after Miss Horne should have been charged and that would include me,” Bowen said.

Assistant State Attorney Dawn Buff said decisions on whom to charge in cases are made meticulously and are based on numerous factors such as the facts available, her knowledge of the law, the rules of evidence and what is admissible in court.

“When we make charging decisions we just don't throw a dart and see where it lands and decide who we think is culpable,” Buff said. “I don't know if Mr. Bowen is aware of the decisions we have to make. I don't know if Mr. Bowen has ever been a prosecutor. I don't know if he's ever had to make a decision as to whether criminal charges should be filed.”

Bowen said he was interviewed by Bradenton police detectives after the department had forwarded its recommendations to the state for charges against the five on April 1.

Bowen also said he would “be glad” to testify on Horne's behalf if called.

“Nobody should have been charged in my estimation,” Bowen told the Herald-Tribune. “It wasn't child abuse to begin with and the state agreed by not charging Frazier with child abuse.”

On Wednesday, Horne, Gagnon, Faller, Kane and Scott Martin — the assistant superintendent who briefly took over a district probe of Frazier before police intervened and who was not been charged with any crime — were notified that the district intends to fire them based on findings of a misconduct investigation in the case surrounding the football coach.

According to a police report, a letter containing nine allegations against Frazier was brought to Manatee High principal Don Sauer in November.

Sauer conferred with Kane, then assistant principal, who said the allegations were old and already had been investigated, even though police would later find no evidence of an investigation.

Sauer sent the letter to Horne, who worked in the district's Office of Professional Standards.

On Nov. 15, Horne conducted seven taped interviews with school staff members, including Frazier, who was put on paid leave that day.

Horne was provided the names of potential victims and was told by a teacher that she saw a student sitting on Frazier's lap inside his office, according to the police report.

According to Derek Byrd, Horne's attorney, the teacher said in a taped interview that she saw the girl on Frazier's knee, not on his lap.

Byrd said a conference was held on Nov. 15 to discuss Horne's findings.

Those in attendance were Bowen, Sauer, Kane, Faller, Horne and Martin, who participated by speaker phone.

Bowen said he determined that nothing he heard from Horne's interviews constituted child abuse and warranted a call to the state hotline. Horne later told police she did not think she could substantiate the allegations.

“She had two attorneys very familiar with school law and reporting child abuse to review the facts and advise her there is nothing here to report and charge with respect to child abuse,” Bowen said.

“Was it inappropriate conduct? Yes, absolutely, but that's not the same as child abuse.”

Horne told police she offered to conduct interviews with students but was instructed by Martin not to.

“If a lawyer is telling you that it's not child abuse, and if you don't believe it is not child abuse, what are you supposed to do?” Byrd said. “She's not a cop. She doesn't do investigations on her own. She does what she's told to do.”

With approval from former interim superintendent David Gayler, Frazier was allowed to return to school the morning of Nov. 16.

He coached in top-ranked Manatee's easy playoff win over St. Petersburg Northeast that night.

Horne told police she was instructed by Gagnon through Martin that a speedy investigation was necessary and Frazier needed to return because his absence on the football field would be noticeable.

Over Christmas, the girl who was seen by a teacher sitting on Frazier wrote a letter outlining several allegations of improper behavior by Frazier.

Her mother brought the letter to the office of Sauer, the principal, on Jan. 9.

The girl claimed Frazier told her he loved her and asked her for a naked picture.

She also wrote that “when we were in his office he would give me a hug, rub his hand on my upper leg and grab my thigh and butt.”

The girl's mother said she gave the letter to Loyda Perez, Sauer's secretary, who reluctantly gave it to Sauer. According to Bowen, the letter was forwarded to Jim Pauley, Sauer's superior, and then to Horne.

Horne later told police she did not call the state hotline because Martin felt nothing could be proven. Bowen told the Herald-Tribune he also advised Horne against calling for a second time.

“The parents had information and gave it to the secretary and she gave it to the principal and then it wound up with Miss Horne,” Bowen said. “If she is charged everybody before her who had the same information has to be charged too.

“If Mr. Martin knew about it why isn't he charged? Why aren't I charged? It gets ridiculous when you look at these facts.”

On Jan. 10 — 56 days after Horne interviewed the Manatee employees and was made aware of the girls' name and the lap/knee incident — Horne interviewed the girl and her mother at Palmetto High, where she had transferred.

When asked why she did not call the state hotline before the letter was composed. the girls' mother said, “I didn't know I was required to do that. I'm not up on the latest laws.

“I'm a parent. I'm just a mom.”

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